Gods and Fighting Men

The Quarrel with the Sons of Morna

One time when the Fianna were gone here and there hunting, Black Garraidh and
Caoilte were sitting beside Finn, and they were talking of the battle where
Finn's father was killed. And Finn said then to Garraidh: "Tell me now, since
you were there yourself, what way was it you brought my father Cumhal to his
death?" "I will tell you that since you ask me," said Garraidh; "it was my own
hand and the hands of the rest of the sons of Morna that made an end of him."
"That is cold friendship from my followers the Sons of Morna," said Finn. "If it
is cold friendship," said Garraidh, "put away the liking you are letting on to
have for us, and show us the hatred you have for us all the while." "If I were
to lift my hand against you now, Sons of Morna," said Finn, "I would be well
able for you all without the help of any man." "It was by his arts Cumhal got
the upper hand of us," said Garraidh; "and when he got power over us," he said,
"he banished us to every far country; a share of us he sent to Alban, and a
share of us to dark Lochlann, and a share of us to bright Greece, parting us
from one another; and for sixteen years we were away from Ireland, and it was no
small thing to us to be without seeing one another through that time. And the
first day we came back to Ireland," he said, 'we killed sixteen hundred men, and
no lie in it, and not a man of them but would be keened by a hundred. And we
took their duns after that," he said, "and we went on till we were all around
one house in Munster of the red walls. But so great was the bravery of the man
in that house, that was your father, that it was easier to find him than to kill
him. And we killed all that were of his race out on the bill, and then we made a
quick rush at the house where Cumhal was, and every man of us made a wound on
his body with his spear. And I myself was in it, and it was I gave him the first
wound. And avenge it on me now, Finn, if you have a mind to," he said.
It was not long after that, Finn gave a feast at Almhuin for all his chief
men, and there came to it two sons of the King of Alban, and sons of the kings
of the great world. And when they were all sitting at the feast, the serving-men
rose up and took drinking-horns worked by skilled men, and having shining stones
in them, and they poured out strong drink for the champions; and it is then
mirth rose up in their young men, and courage in their fighting men, and
kindness and gentleness in their women, and knowledge and foreknowledge in their
poets.
And then a crier rose up and shook a rough iron chain to silence the clowns
and the common lads and idlers, and then he shook a chain of old silver to
silence the high lords and chief men of the Fianna, and the learned men, and
they all listened and were silent.
And Fergus of the True Lips rose up and sang before Finn the songs and the
good poems of his forefathers; and Finn and Oisin and Lugaidh's Son rewarded him
with every good thing. And then he went on to Goll, son of Morna, and told the
fights and the destructions and the cattle-drivings and the courtings of his
fathers; and it is well-pleased and high-minded the sons of Morna were,
listening to that.
And Goll said then: "Where is my woman-messenger?" "I am here, King of the
Fianna," said she. "Have you brought me my hand-tribute from the men of
Lochlann?" "I have brought it surely," said she. And with that she rose up and
laid on the floor of the hail before Goll a load of pure gold, the size of a
good pig, and that would be a heavy load for a strong man. And Goll loosened the
covering that was about it, and he gave Fergus a good reward from it as he used
to do; for there never was a wise, sharp-worded poet, or a sweet harp-player, or
any learned man of Ireland or of Alban, but Goll would give him gold or silver
or some good thing.
And when Finn saw that, he said: "How long is it, Goll, you have this rent on
the men of Lochlann, and my own rent being on them always with it, and one of my
own men, Ciaran son of Latharne, and ten hundred men of his household, guarding
it and guarding my right of hunting?" And Goll saw there was anger on Finn, and
he said: "It is a long time, Finn, I have that rent on the men of Lochlann, from
the time your father put war and quarrels on me, and the King of Ireland joined
with him, and I was made to quit Ireland by them. And I went into Britain," he
said, "and I took the country and killed the king himself and did destruction on
his people, but Cumhal put me out of it; and from that I went to Fionn-lochlann,
and the king fell by me, and his household, and Cumhal put me out of it and I
went from that to the country of the Saxons, and the king and his household fell
by me, and Cumhal put me out of it. But I came back then to Ireland, and I
fought a battle against your father, and he fell by me there. And it was at that
time I put this rent upon the men of Lochlann. And, Finn," he said, "it is not a
rent of the strong hand you have put on them, but it is a tribute for having the
protection of the Fianna of Ireland, and I do not lessen that. And you need not
begrudge that tribute to me," he said, "for if I had more than that again, it is
to you and to the men of Ireland I would give it."
There was great anger on Finn then, and he said: "You tell me, Goll," he
said, "by your own story, that you came from the city of Beirbhe to fight
against my father, and that you killed him in the battle; and it is a bold thing
you to tell that to me." "By your own hand," said Goll, "if you were to give me
the same treatment your father gave me, I would pay you the same way as I paid
him." "It would be hard for you to do that," said Finn, "for there are a hundred
men in my household against every man there is in your household." "That was the
same with your father," said Goll, "and I avenged my disgrace on him; and I
would do the same on yourself if you earned it," he said.
Then Cairell of the White Skin, son of Finn, said: "It is many a man of
Finn's household you have put down, Goll!" And Bald Conan when he heard that
said: "I swear by my arms, Goll was never without having a hundred men in his
household, every one of them able to get the better of yourself." "And is it to
them you belong, crooked-speaking, bare-headed Conan?" said Cairell. "It is to
them I belong, you black, feeble, nail-scratching, rough-skinned Cairell; and I
will make you know it was Finn was in the wrong," said Conan.
With that Cairell rose up and gave a furious blow of his fist to Conan, and
Conan took it with no great patience, but gave him back a blow in his teeth, and
from that they went on to worse blows again. And the two sons of Goll rose up to
help Conan, and Osgar went to the help of Cairell, and it was not long till many
of the chief men of the Fianna were fighting on the one side or the other, on
the side of Finn or on the side of the sons of Morna.
But then Fergus of the True Lips rose up, and the rest of the poets of the
Fianna along with him, and they sang their songs and their poems to check and to
quiet them. And they left off their fighting at the sound of the poets' songs,
and they let their weapons fall on the floor, and the poets took them up, and
made peace between the fighters; and they put bonds on Finn and on Goll to keep
the peace for a while, till they could ask for a judgment from the High King of
Ireland. And that was the end for that time of the little quarrel at Almhuin.
But it broke out again, one time there was a falling out between Finn and
Goll as to the dividing of a pig of the pigs of Manannan. And at Daire Tardha,
the Oak Wood of Bulls, in the province of Connacht, there was a great fight
between Finn's men and the sons of Morna. And the sons of Morna were worsted,
and fifteen of their men were killed; and they made their mind up that from that
time they would set themselves against any friends of Finn or of his people. And
it was Conan the Bald gave them that advice, for he was always bitter, and a
maker of quarrels and of mischief in every place.
And they kept to their word, and spared no one. There was a yellow-haired
queen that Finn loved, Berach Brec her name was, and she was wise and comely and
worthy of any good man, and she had her house full of treasures, and never
refused the asking of any. And any one that came to her house at Samhain time
might stay till Beltaine, and have his choice then to go or to stay. And the
sons of Morna had fostered her, and they went where she was and bade her to give
up Finn and she need be in no dread of them. But she said she would not give up
her kind lover to please them; and she was going away from them to her ship, and
Art, son of Morna, made a cast of his spear that went through her body, that she
died, and her people brought her up from the strand and buried her.
And as to Goll, he took a little hound that Finn thought a great deal of,
Conbeg its name was, and he drowned it in the sea; and its body was brought up
to shore by a wave afterwards, and it was buried under a little green hill by
the Fianna. And Caoilte made a complaint over it, and he said how swift the
little hound was after deer, or wild pigs, and how good at killing them, and
that it was a pity it to have died, out on the cold green waves. And about that
time, nine women of the Tuatha de Dannan came to meet with nine men of the
Fianna, and the sons of Morna saw them coming and made an end of them.
And when Caoilte met with Goll, he made a cast of his spear at him that
struck the golden helmet off his head and a piece of his flesh along with it.
But Goll took it very proudly, and put on the helmet again and took up his
weapons, and called out to his brothers that he was no way ashamed.
And Finn went looking for the sons of Morna in every place to do vengeance on
them. They were doing robbery and destruction one time in Slieve Echtge, that
got its name from Echtge, daughter of Nuada of the Silver Hand, and Finn and the
Fianna were to the west, at Slieve Cairn in the district of Corcomruadh. And
Finn was in doubt if the sons of Morna were gone southward into Munster or north
into Connacht. So he sent Aedan and Cahal, two sons of the King of Ulster, and
two hundred fighting men with them, into the beautiful pleasant province of
Connacht, and every day they used to go looking for the sons of Morna from place
to place. But after a while the three battalions of the Fianna that were in
Corcomruadh saw the track of a troop of men, and they thought it to be the track
of the sons of Morna; and they closed round them at night, and made an end of
them all. But when the full light came on the morrow, they knew them to be their
own people, that were with the King of Ulster's sons, and they gave three great
heavy cries, keening the friends they had killed in mistake.
And Caoilte and Oisin went to Rath Medba and brought a great stone and put it
over the king's sons, and it was called Lia an Imracail, the Stone of the
Mistake. And the place where Goll brought his men the time he parted from Finn
in anger got the name of Druimscarha, the Parting Hill of Heroes.